92 POLYGALA FAMILY. «S 



deeply 5-lobed leaves silvery-white and when young downy beneath, the narrow 

 lobes coarsely cut and toothed ; flowers greenish, in earliest spring, without 

 petals ; fruit woolly when young, but soon smooth, 2' - 3' long including the 

 great diverging wings. 



A. rubrum, Red or Swamp M. Rather small tree, in wet grounds, 

 with soft white wood, reddish twigs, moderately 3 - 5-lobed leaves whitish be- 

 neath, the middle lobe longest, all irregularly serrate ; flowers scarlet, crimson, 

 or sometimes yellowish (later than in the foregoing species ) ; fruit smooth, with 

 the slightly spreading wings 1' or less in length, often reddish. 



7. NEGUNDO, ASH-LEAVED MAPLE, BOX-ELDER. (Obscure 

 • or unmeaning name. ) 



"N, aeeroides. A handsome, rather small tree, common from Penn. S. 

 & W., with light green twigs, and drooping clusters of small greenish flowers, 

 in spring, rather earlier than the leaves, the fertile ones in drooping racemes, 

 the oblong fruits half the length of the very veiny wing ; leaflets ovate, pointed, 

 coarsely toothed, very veiny. A variety with white-variegated leaves is lately 

 cult, for ornament. 



36. POLYGALACEJE, POLYGALA FAMILY. 



Bitter, some of them medicinal plants, represented mainly, and 

 here wholly, by the genus 



1. POLYGALA, MILKWORT. (Name from Greek words, meaning tomcA 

 milk; but the plants have no milky juice at all; thej' are thought to have 

 been so named from a notion that in pasturage they increased the milk of 

 cows. ) Flowers remarkably irregular, in outward appearance as if papiliona- 

 ceous like those of the next family, but really of a quite different structure. 

 Calyx pei'sistent, of .5 sepals ; three of them small, viz. two on the lower, and 

 one on the upper, side of the blossom ; and one on each side called icings which 

 are larger, colored, and would be taken for petals. Within these, on the 

 lower side, ai"e three petals united into one body, the middle one keel-shaped 

 and often bearing a crest or appendage. Stamens 8 or sometimes 6 ; their 

 filaments united below into a split sheath, separating above usually in two 

 equal sets, concealed in the hooded middle petal : anthers 1 -celled, opening by 

 a hole at the top. Style curved and commonly enlarged above or variously 

 irregular. Ovary 2-celled, with a single ovule hanging from the top of each 

 cell, becoming a small flattish 2-seeded pod. Seed with an appendage at the 

 attachment (caruncle) : embryo straight, with flat cotyledons in a little albu- 

 men. Leaves simple, entire, without stipules. Our native species are nu- 

 merous, mostly with small or even minute flowers, and are rather difficult to 

 study. The following are the commonest. 



§ 1. Native species, hw herbs, mostly smooth. 



* Flowers yellow, some turnivrj green in drying, in dense spikes or heads : leaves 

 alternate. Growing in low or icet places in pine-barrens, S. E. Fl. summer. 



-t- Numerous short spikes or heads in a corymb. 



P. cym6sa. Stem l°-3° high, branching at top into a compound corymb 

 of spikes ; leaves linear, acute, the uppermost small ; no caruncle to the seed. 

 From North Carolina S. 



P. rambsa. Stem C- 12' high, more branched ; lowest leaves obovate or 

 spatulate, upper ones lanceolate ; a caruncle at base of seed. ]3elaware and S. 

 •*- •*- Short and thick spike or head sinqle : root-leaves clustered. 



P. liltea, Yellow Bachklor's-Button of S. Stem .5' - 12' high ; lower 

 leaves sixitulatc or obovate, upper lanceolate ; flowers bright orange. 



P. nkna. Stems 2' - 4' high, in a cluster from the spatulate or linear root- 

 leaves ; flowers lighter yellow. 



* * Flowers purple or rose-color, in a single dense spike terminating the stem or 



branches : no subterranean flowers. Fl. all summer. (1) 



